I have been writing on film and popular culture for over fifteen years. My work has appeared in many publications, including Harper's Bazaar, Rolling Stone, The Advocate and The Sunday London Times Magazine among others. And I have been a senior writer for several websites including AOL's Critics Choice and CDNow. For many years, I was the movie critic of Us magazine, where I gained a measure of national renown. And, in recent years, I've covered theater for Entertainment Weekly magazine. During my eclectic career, I have profiled film directors (Martin Scorsese, Paul Verhoeven), photographers (Cindy Sherman, Mary Ellen Mark), musicians (Tina Turner, Brian Wilson) and actors (Sarah Jessica Parker, Kevin Kline). I have edited several visual arts magazines including Camera Arts, Photo/Design and Aperture where I put together Aperture's groundbreaking and controversial 100th Anniversary Issue. I was also a book editor at Aperture Publishing, where I developed several biographies including the award-winning W. Eugene Smith: Let Truth Be the Prejudice. I am the author of The American Cowboy: Tribute to a Vanishing Breed (Gallery Books), and I have appeared on CNN. I am a native New Yorker, born in the Bronx and now living in lower Manhattan.
I am a regular contributor to Premiere magazine and have been a freelance writer for more than 10 years, writing for such publications as Rolling Stone, Spin, Travel & Leisure, The Bulletin (Australia), Out, The Washington Post, New York Newsday and Us magazine, where I was a contributing editor. From 1999 to 2002 I was also the Movies Editor at CDNow, where I helped launch the video/DVD section. I have interviewed and profiled numerous celebrities including Lauren Bacall, Vanessa Redgrave, Jeremy Irons, Paul Newman, Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Susan Sarandon, John Malkovich, Johnny Cash, Ravi Shankar, Jane Fonda, Diane Keaton, John Cale, Studs Terkel, Robert McNamara, and Francis Ford Coppola. I also wrote and directed a short film titled Family Bonds that played at festivals and at the Angelika theater in New York. A graduate of Columbia University, I was born in Washington, DC and now live in New York City's Greenwich Village. To see some of my other work, go to my homepage at http://home.nyc.rr.com/alweisel.
